Under 18s will be banned from buying corrosive substances and zombie knives, in a new bid to crack down on street acid attacks.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd announced fresh tightening of restrictions around the public's access to sulphuric acid.

New rules will prevent people from having a corrosive substance in a public place, without good reason.

And it will be illegal to keep certain types of weapons – such as flick knives and zombie knives – at home.

Speaking at Conservative Party Conference in Manchester, Ms Rudd said: “Acid and knife attacks have an absolutely horrific impact on their victims. I am determined that we do all we can to prevent such attacks, and I want to send the strongest possible message that where people break the law in these areas, they will face tough penalties.

“We need to be honest about the recent rise in certain types of offences, and we need to be on the front foot about tackling it. That’s why we’re giving police extra powers, and will be publishing a new Serious Violence Strategy early next year.”

Read More

As well as the crackdown on street attacks, new tougher sentences mean extrmemists who repeatedly watch terrorist propaganda will face up to 15 years in jail.

Home secretary Amber Rudd will tell the Tory Party conference that counter-terrorism laws will be updated to keep pace with online activities.

The move will strengthen the existing offence of possessing information likely to be useful to a terrorist so it does not only apply to downloaded or stored data.

The maximum penalty will also apply to terrorists who publish information about members of the armed forces, police and intelligence services to fuel attacks.

Ms Rudd yesterday attacked tech giants who said there was ‘no business case’ for tackling web terror - a view she called ‘totally unacceptable’.

She told the Daily Mail Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter and other companies had a ‘moral obligation’ to stop the use of their sites to promote terrorism.

The Home Secretary also revealed ministers have held talks with online retailers including Amazon after it emerged terrorists in the UK had bought components for home-made bombs over the internet.

Tech firms must allow security chiefs to access encrypted messaging services such as WhatsApp so there are no ‘godark areas’ for terrorists.

The change will strengthen the existing offence of possessing information likely to be useful to a terrorist which currently applies only to online material that has been downloaded and stored on a computer or smartphone or printed off as a hard copy.

The changes will also increase the maximum jail term from ten to 15 years.

Ministers are acting after prosecutors complained they were unable to bring terror charges against a man who had repeatedly viewed bomb-making videos on YouTube, because he had not saved the footage.

Last month at a summit in New York the Prime Minister warned tech giants that they needed to go "further and faster".

The PM believes tackling online jihadis is key to stopping the spread of poisonous hate "warping young minds".